Disclosed herein is a method and a device for monitoring a parking permit of a motor vehicle.
Public parking spaces are increasingly limited in their use. Thus, e.g., especially in urban areas, the use of parking spaces is restricted to certain groups of people such as, e.g., residents, and/or use of parking spaces is restricted to certain periods of time or to a limited time duration. Also, parking fees are charged for the use of public or private parking spaces. In general, a parking authorization pass, which must be visibly displayed in the vehicle, is necessary as evidence that a motor vehicle is parked legitimately in such a parking space. The visible display of the parking authorization pass in the motor vehicle provides for simple checking of the parking permit by an officer of the car park operator. Such a parking authorization pass can, e.g., be a resident's parking pass, which provides residents with permanent or temporary parking in a particular parking space, a parking ticket that can be obtained from a parking ticket machine or even a parking disk, which is set to a time of arrival and allows for determination, using said information, of whether a maximum permissible parking time is exceeded.
In all the cases mentioned, it is necessary that a parking authorization pass is visibly displayed in the motor vehicle no later than when leaving the motor vehicle if the parking authorization is not permanently affixed. In particular, it is necessary that an adequate parking ticket is acquired for the duration of the parking after parking a motor vehicle in a parking space managed with a parking ticket machine, and that the parking ticket is, e.g., displayed behind the windscreen of the motor vehicle so as to be externally visible. However, there is the possibility that the parking ticket can be forgotten by the driver of the motor vehicle, e.g., because the driver has not noticed that it is a chargeable parking space, or because the driver has actually purchased a parking ticket but has failed to display the same visibly in the motor vehicle.
It is known from DE 10 2010 003 890 A1 that, depending on a recorded parking position of a motor vehicle in a recognized parking situation and with specified parking prohibition information, it is determined whether the motor vehicle is in a current or future valid parking prohibition zone or even on a chargeable parking space. If the motor vehicle is in a parking prohibition zone, a signal for signaling the parking prohibition is generated. If the motor vehicle is in a chargeable parking space, specified parking charge information is retrieved from an information database and an actual parking time duration is detected. Depending on the actual parking time duration and the specified parking charge information, a parking charge is determined and an instruction to pay the parking charge is forwarded to a specified charging system. This enables a driver of the motor vehicle to be reminded of a parking prohibition zone; furthermore, payment of the parking fees in a convenient manner can be provided. However, adaptation of the infrastructure of the car park or of the charging system of the car park operator is necessary for this purpose.